In the urban areas of Senegal, child beggars are ubiquitous on street corners, holding out their empty cans in the busy intersections. Many of these children are talibés, the Wolof term for student, who are entrusted by their families to seriñs, religious teachers, to receive Islamic education. By begging, these talibés are practicing yalwaan, alms-seeking, in order to solicit zakat, alms. One of the Five Pillars of Islam, zakat is an act of worship. In recent decades, the practice of yalwaan has become widespread and has led to the proliferation of illegitimate daaras, schools, which have created exploitative circumstances for their talibés. There are some seriñs who are forcing their talibés to beg for their profit and neglecting their duty to educate and provide for the children. This presents a serious human rights violation, including the right to education. Because attempts to end the exploitative forced begging of talibés have failed, this paper will explain the cultural and political context in which yalwaan occurs and examine why past strategies to eliminate the practice of forced begging have not succeeded. An intensive review of literature on talibé education and exploitation reveals that the issue is deeply shrouded in a religious educational tradition that emphasizes humility and discipline through hardship. Research into alternate strategies reveals successful projects in other countries that take into account the condition for work in education, particularly the innovative projects by the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour.

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Sonnenberg, Krystyna."Confronting the exploitation of Talibés in Senegal: Implementing a national framework" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 55th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Apr 30, 2011<Not Available>. 2014-11-26 <http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p493854_index.html>

APA Citation:

Sonnenberg, K. , 2011-04-30"Confronting the exploitation of Talibés in Senegal: Implementing a national framework" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 55th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Quebec, Canada<Not Available>. 2014-11-26 from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p493854_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptReview Method: Peer ReviewedAbstract: In the urban areas of Senegal, child beggars are ubiquitous on street corners, holding out their empty cans in the busy intersections. Many of these children are talibés, the Wolof term for student, who are entrusted by their families to seriñs, religious teachers, to receive Islamic education. By begging, these talibés are practicing yalwaan, alms-seeking, in order to solicit zakat, alms. One of the Five Pillars of Islam, zakat is an act of worship. In recent decades, the practice of yalwaan has become widespread and has led to the proliferation of illegitimate daaras, schools, which have created exploitative circumstances for their talibés. There are some seriñs who are forcing their talibés to beg for their profit and neglecting their duty to educate and provide for the children. This presents a serious human rights violation, including the right to education. Because attempts to end the exploitative forced begging of talibés have failed, this paper will explain the cultural and political context in which yalwaan occurs and examine why past strategies to eliminate the practice of forced begging have not succeeded. An intensive review of literature on talibé education and exploitation reveals that the issue is deeply shrouded in a religious educational tradition that emphasizes humility and discipline through hardship. Research into alternate strategies reveals successful projects in other countries that take into account the condition for work in education, particularly the innovative projects by the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour.